Chapter 17

The Founders Tomb

God it hurt! Al thought desperately as he thrashed in his bonds. Everything hurt. It was as though he was on fire. Armon was laughing cruelly in his head as though he were a fun toy for him to play with, not an actual living being. Suddenly the pain stopped. Albus felt his vision go fuzzy. Spots danced across his vision. Albus gasped.

"P…please…" his voice was raw, he shivered in fear as he felt Armon curl around his mind, like a snake about to strike his prey.

"Oh…" Nott laughed, as did the six other Death Eaters, "Is it too much for ittle bitty Potter?"

"W…why?" Al coughed, "I…I'm in y… your house… why me?"

Nott grinned. Albus shivered. It was like the grin of the Cheshire cat in Alice and Wonderland, the muggle book his Aunt Hermione used to read to him before he went to sleep. Except this cat wasn't the one in stories, this was a vicious beast, out for vengeance. Nott leant towards him, and then, to Albus' horror he stroked his hair, a mocking gesture of love. Al trembled in the clutches of the stone gargoyle.

"The fact that you were sorted into Slytherin made you an easy target. An outcast. A poor boy afraid to speak to his own family. Plus… you found the stone."

Albus felt tears well in his eyes as the memories came rushing back. Nott grabbed his chin roughly, their foreheads were almost touching. Albus could see nothing in Nott's grey eyes, nothing but madness and hatred. He cried out as Nott's grip tightened to the point where Al thought that the man trying to crush his jaw.

"You're a Potter." Nott sneered, "You may be in Slytherin but just because you are in our house it does not change who you are. You are a lion in a snake's skin boy, even your own House Master could see that!"

Albus glanced at the unconscious form of Professor Pearce.

"W…why?" Albus cringed as another wave of pain enveloped him like a tidal wave. It felt as though he was burning in the pits of Hell.

"Because I spent twenty years in Azkaban boy! Twenty hellish years!" he growled. "I will bring my Master back from the dead, to finish what he started. I have the Resurrection Stone, I have the blood of an innocent, I have the Helix Jewel and we have the full moon, and I will have the Darkest Wizard of all time, you are too late Albus Severus." He chuckled as Albus cried out in pain as Armon spiked his mind again. "Soon, you will lose all feeling of your body. The demon shall allow the Dark Lord's conscious to enter your mind, and they shall become the most powerful being in the universe. And you…"

Nott smirked and realised his hold on Albus.

"Shall be the face of all destruction."

I shall rise, my boy.

Albus growled as that bloody voice filled his mind. A voice that chilled him to the bone. The voice that was responsible for this whole mess! The one who was responsible for him almost killing Rose!

Despite all the pain and despite all the despair. Albus still had one more trick up his sleeve. His cunning. He smirked through the pain.

"What's so funny boy?" Nott snarled. "You have less than ten minutes until we perform the curse."

"N…nothing." Al said, he could feel Armon's anger as the pain level increased, but he ignored it as much as he could. "E…except, what w…will h…happen to you once y…your M…master is h…here. You w…will be n…nothing. Taking orders…aaah! O…orders a…again!" Albus screamed as Nott punched him in the jaw, that coupled with Armon's mind attacks was almost too hard to bare. Blood trickled from his lip, his consciousness wavered.

Pity we need you conscious for this, boy.

Albus sighed with relief as the pain faded. But to his horror, his relief was short-lived as Nott brandished a sharp, silver knife. Nott cackled as Al whimpered, numb to the bone. This was it, he was going to die. His body would be nothing more than a shell, a memory…

"Don't try your foolish mind games. You're too late. Say goodbye, boy. Your time's up."

Albus Severus closed his eyes. This was it. This was the end. He was going to be nothing more than a memory. Albus took a deep breath. But the darkness never came, instead there was a shout and a flash of bright light. He opened his eyes, expecting to see his own dad standing victorious in the dim light of the Tomb, but instead, Scorpius' dad stood there, his wand arm poised and waiting for the counter-attack, fury burning in his steel, grey eyes.

Harry, Teddy, Hannah, Draco, McGonagall, Ron and Luna rushed down the corridors at top speed. Harry clutching the sword of Gryffindor tightly in his hand. Rose, James and Lily had begged Hermione and Ginny to stay with them, they had reluctantly relented their children's sake. Harry cringed at how quiet, even dark Hogwarts appeared without any of its students bustling about in the usually busy corridors. The students were currently inside their houses under the watchful eye of their teachers. Luna had arrived seconds before they left McGonagall's office.

"Where is the Tomb?" Harry asked Draco impatiently.

Draco glared at the Chosen One, "Potter I only knew about this the same time you did, even though I'm Slytherin, I'm not psychic."

"But only you can find it." Harry insisted.

Draco rolled his eyes. "Only when I get to the corridor under the lake, yes."

Eventually, after turning many corridors and running down many stairs, the seven of them finally reached the Dungeons. Harry gulped as he saw the Black Lake shimmering above them. Draco frowned as the stone walls began to tremble, Draco could have sworn he heard a voice laugh. The laugh lacked kindness or compassion, it was cold, as cold as a Dementor. He shivered.

"Did you hear that?" Draco asked.

The others shook their heads. Draco scowled. "It's this way." He frowned as he entered a corridor that seemed completely alien to him. He had lived in the Dungeons for six years. He didn't go to school in the seventh year because of the Dark bloody Lord.

"Luckily we had the Slytherin students moved to the Great Hall." McGonagall said to Hannah, who nodded.

Draco meanwhile ignored the old witch and followed the voice. Now he thought about it, this corridor was definitely not there when he had been in school. Nott must have opened it whilst he was here this year. However, Draco remembered whenever he had passed the main corridor, he would always get a strange, unpleasant feeling every time he passed a certain section of corridor. He sighed. No wonder the Slytherins were so brutal and anxious to be the bosses of the school. They were scared. He was scared. Draco swallowed, not that he would ever tell anyone of course. Draco gasped as a wave of cold air hit him like a brick wall. He turned back, the other six had stopped in their tracks. They were trapped.

"Draco!" Harry shouted. "Can you hear me?"

Draco strained to hear Potter's shouts as the invisible barrier seemed to have muffled the voices from the outside but nevertheless, he could still hear his old rival, although barely. He allowed his hand to hover in front of him and moved the sides up and down to tell them that he could sort of hear them.

"I'll open it Potter!" Draco shouted. "I'll find him!"

Draco felt adrenaline pump through his veins as he made his way down the dark corridor. He could hear a faint trickle of laughter. His eyes widened. That wasn't the same laughter he had heard before. That was Theo!

It was now so dim that Draco could barely see anything. His other senses were heightened and he clutched his wand tightly. He daren't use the lumos spell, he didn't want Nott to see him coming.

Then, as though he was caught in a bad nightmare. Draco was flung viciously to the wall of the corridor, as though he was dangling on the end of an invisible hook the floor gave way and Draco screamed as he was plunged into the depths. He was falling. Draco's heart felt as though it was going to burst. He was going to die! Even in the dim light his knew the ground was only a few meters away. He then thought of Scorpius and Astoria. Their faces imprinted in his mind. No! He snarled. Damn you Potter.

"Aresto Momentum!" He yelled, and his falling ceased to a stop and he collapsed on the murky floor.

"Safest place in the world my ass!" he growled as he shook the dirt from his robes.

He then took a few moments to establish his surroundings. He looked upwards and his hope fell as fast as he had just fallen. He was in some sort of well at least forty metres deep, maybe fifty. He cursed. He needed to get out. Now.

"Sssilly boy."

Draco froze, thanking Merlin that he hadn't dropped his wand during the fall. It wasn't the same voice as before. But like Granger said, hearing voices in the Wizarding World was a bad sign.

"Show yourself!" He cried, "Lumos!"

The light was a welcoming relief, but this did not last long as there was nobody there. Instead, all Draco could see was a shadow. A shadow of a snake.

"Why I am here?" he called.

"You are here to prove yourssself. To be tesssted." The shadow of the snake replied, its tongue flicked out of its mouth, hissing as it did so. "Only a Slytherin can enter the Tomb. Salazar does not trust the others. He wantssss to ensure only the trussssted could accsssessss the Tomb to protect the Wizarding World from Armon."

"Well, your most trusted are the least trusted in the Wizarding World." Draco spat. The shadow of the snake seemed to curl and snap angrily in response.

"You should be in Gryffindor. You sssspeak with ssssuch bravery." It hissed. "Why aren't you are Gryffindor? Why are you a Slytherin?"

Draco's eyes widened. Why was he in Slytherin? He lowered his wand. Slytherin was a house of brotherhood. So was Gryffindor. Slytherin was a house full of pride. So was Gryffindor. Slytherin was a house of power. So was Gryffindor. Both were ambitious. And even though Slytherin's were known for cunning, Gryffindor's pulled cunning pranks all the time. Draco's eyes widened in realisation. This was the test. The test to allow him to walk into the Tomb. He glanced at the shadow nervously, its tongue flickered in anticipation. The reason he was Slytherin was … he realised … was not because of his qualities, but it was because he had chosen to. He had chosen to be in the house of ambition, cunning and most of all, brotherhood.

Draco looked at the shadow, directly in what he assumed where it's eyes. "I am in Slytherin." He said clearly, "Because I chose to be in it."

Draco smirked as the shadow appeared to smile, it was more of a grimace than a smile. The question had been a trick question.

"Save the boy." It commanded. "He will make Slytherin great again."

Draco nodded and gazed in a mixture of trepidation and awe as the snake's shadow vanished, revealing an open doorway. Draco growled. Theo's already been through here.

Wand raised Draco stifled a gasp as he heard Al's screams. Draco peered round the corner of the doorway and watched in horror as Theo raised a knife towards the boy, as though he was sacrificing a lamb.

"Don't try your foolish mind games. You're too late. Say goodbye, boy. Your time's up."

Draco froze. That was not Theo. The Theo he knew would have never defeated an opponent like this. Scratch that he would have never harmed a child. Not even Harry bloody Potter's son.

Draco charged into the room, forget a plan, Albus was about to die.

"Expelliarmus!" He shouted. A jet of energy shot from his wand and plunged into his old friend who collided into the wall.

Draco growled as the five other Death Eaters pointed their wands furiously at him. Draco blanched. He couldn't believe it. Even under that mask. He could recognise…

"Crabbe?" He asked.

Three of the masked men turned to face the one farthest away from Draco. Crabbe's plump body sagged as though he was sighing. The man peeled his mask from his face and glared at his former school mate.

"Malfoy." The man sneered. "Being a Gryffindor? Saving that brat?"

Draco took a deep breath. "I'm doing what's right, Vincent." Crabbe visibly recoiled like a snake at the sound of his name, as though he were a child being told off by a parent.

"What's right?" Crabbe spat. "Getting justice is what's right! Our families sacrificed themselves for what… to have mudbloods and blood traitors running wild! Whilst purebloods like us are treated like shit!"

"Releasing Armon is not going to bring justice. It will bring disaster." Draco said firmly. "Crabbe what happened to you? You have a child yourself, or have you forgotten." he said the last part softly, hoping a gently voice would console his old friend. Unfortunately it did the opposite.

"Azkaban is what happened! And for your information Malfoy, my wife hates me!" Crabbe shouted. Draco sighed. "I may not have been in there as long as Nott but that place was fucking murder! It tore me away from my family. You know, not all of us have the money and power to get away with exactly that!"

Draco heard a faint groaning as Nott recovered from the attack.

"You're not as stupid as you were at school, Crabbe. Maybe Goyle was holding you back."

"Stupefy!" Crabbe fired the stunning spell which missed Draco by inches, instead it collided with Nott's shoulder. Nott howled with pain as his side collided with the stone floor, inches away from Albus.

"You were holding me back!" Crabbe screamed. "You and your pathetic need to be the top dog. Well, now if you haven't noticed, we are going to be top!"

Draco stunned the nearest Death Eater before Crabbe finished his speech.

"Aaaah!"

Draco flinched as the cry came, not from his own mouth but from Al's.

Stop fooling around and perform the curse.

Salazar help. Draco thought. This isn't what you want. I know it's not what you want. You don't want them to destroy everything.

Draco ducked as a fist swung his way, another jet of light, this time green, came so close to hitting him he felt the breeze of the attack as it shot passed him. It was Crabbe. Crabbe had fired the fucking killing curse at him!

Draco then dodged another killing curse and then, he swallowed hard as a Death Eater jabbed his wand roughly in Draco's temple. He growled as pain shot from his temple, his vision clouded. He glanced at Albus who was gazing at him in horror. It was at that moment of desperation Draco had never been so pleased to hear Harry Potter's voice in his life. His pleas to the snake had work. That had been Salazar's spirit. He had let the Gryffindors, a Hufflepuff and a Ravenclaw in. The houses were unified once again.